September 25, 2013

Hillwood Estate, Museum and Garden

I discover many things on Pinterest and Instagram. I have no shame in admitting that. I managed to discover Hillwood Estate, Museum and Garden on Instagram. I convinced my sister that we should go check it out and she happily agreed. What is Hillwood Estate? As stated on the website of the estate; Marjorie Merriweather Post (founder of Post Cereal Company) bought Hillwood in 1955. Her estate has the most comprehensive collection of Russian imperial art outside of Russia, a distinguished 18th-century French decorative art collection, and twenty-five acres of serene landscaped gardens.

The estate is open Tuesdays-Saturdays from 10am-5pm and on select Sundays. There is a suggested ticket fee - which means they have set recommended prices - however you can pay however much you can afford. An interesting fact about Marjorie is that when she passed away one of her requests was that every day there be fresh flowers in each room of her estate. When you visit Hillwood you notice that in every room there are flower arrangements in each and every room. The flowers are picked from her cutting garden and greenhouse.

Have you head of the Fabergé eggs? Well Miss Marjorie has two on display at her estate.

In addition to the vast art collection the estate has beautiful gardens. There is a beautiful rose garden, french parterre, putting green, Japanese style garden, greenhouse, and cutting garden.

French Parterre

Japanese Style Garden

Cutting Garden

Greenhouse

It took a good 2-2.5 hours to explore the estate. We opted for the self guided tour instead of professional tour or audio tour at no additional charge.

Hillwood is a great place to explore if you are local to DC or visiting from out of town. It is different from all the Smithsonian museums and DC tourist hot spots.